THE fact the New Jersey governor refused to even consider a bear hunt comes as no surprise.

After all, he is a politician.

He courted sportsmen and women throughout his campaign and while never promising a bear hunt, he did sound as if he had an open mind.

Two senators and an assemblywoman from New Jerseys northwestern counties called Corzine’s move “outrageous” and said it panders to “an extremist fringe that seeks to ban all hunting.” State Sens. Robert Littell (R-Franklin), Anthony R. Bucco (R-Boonton) and Assemblywoman Alison McHose (R-Franklin), who is Littell’s daughter, issued the joint statement, saying the state Supreme Court had approved the Fish and Game Council’s management plan.

“For the people of northwestern New Jersey, this is a matter of public safety. We have had bears enter homes.

We have seen bears on porches, and we have had bears roaming by swing sets,” the lawmakers said.

They added, “It will be too late to act after a child is mauled.” McHose and Littell later labeled the governor’s letter “pseudo-scientific comment” and “left-wing lunacy.” John Rogalo of Stanhope is the northern regional VP of the New Jersey Federation of Sportsmen. “Corzine had everything back on his desk in June. For him to wait until now to act is irresponsible.

He is interfering with the sound, scientific management that is mandated by law,” Rogalo said.

But Corzine said his administration must review policies implemented before he took office in January, including the bear hunt.

“I didn’t see evidence that this was an effective element, and there were questions of whether we were fully implementing and investing in the overall bear-management policy in a way that was effective,” Corzine said.

Corzine’s budget provides only about $410,000 for all bear research, monitoring and control efforts. That’s not nearly enough to do the job, with or without a hunt.

The alternatives that Corzine wants to look at have already been explored.

The TerraMar Environmental Research report points out that proposed catch-and-release methods of population control favored by animal-rights advocates would be “unlikely to succeed” because of a variety of factors. Those including bear intelligence, range, and the abundance of bears in New Jersey that virtually assures failure of a comprehensive effort to use “fertility control” methods on a widely dispersed bear population.

Corzine and his staff are not unaware of this study, or the facts in the matter. It would appear that the decision not to hold this year’s blackbear hunt is more a political favor to the animalrights movement than a decision based on what is best for either the black bears or the citizens of New Jersey.

For years, the state has wrestled with how to control the bear population that has grown to more than 3,000 animals, mostly in the northwest, though the bruins have been sighted in all 21 counties.